Changes in diet in accordance with the recent development of industrial society have brought about an increase in morbidity rates of a variety of adult diseases. In particular, awareness of correlations between fat intake and cardiovascular diseases has considerably increased, and, in particular, an increasing interest in fat intake requires low-calorie, low-fat foods. The reason for high interest associated with fat to reduce calories is that control of calories through fat intake is the most effective method to reduce calories, since the metabolic energy of fat is 9 kcal/g, while the metabolic energy of carbohydrates and proteins is only 4 kcal/g. Accordingly, there is a need for fat substitutes to alternate a part or all of fat present in margarine having a fat content of 80% or more, and dressings, mayonnaises, cheeses, cakes and baked goods having a fat content of 25 to 40%.
Fat substitutes may be classified into protein-based fat substitutes, carbohydrate-based fat substitutes, fat-based fat substitutes and synthetic fat substitutes depending on the composition thereof. Among these, as carbohydrate-based fat substitutes, modified starches prepared by chemical treatment methods have been utilized in a variety of applications including solid foods such as baked goods, breads and noodles, composed of starch components.
These modified starches are obtained by modifying starches through physical and chemical treatment so that the starches have novel functions and thus overcome limitations of general starches, in order to more efficiently use starches and expand utilization range thereof. However, these modified starches are disadvantageously readily separated due to low emulsifying capacity, when applied to liquid foods such as mayonnaise.